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Wednesday, September 10, 2014

Vatican City, 10 September 2014 (VIS) –
A special aspect of the “maternity” of the Church is education
through mercy, and this was the subject of the Holy Father's
catechesis during this Wednesday's general audience in St. Peter's
Square.

Like a good mother and educator, the
Church focuses on the essential, and the essential, according to the
Gospel, is mercy, as Jesus clearly tells his disciples: “Be
merciful, just as your father is”. “Is it possible for a
Christian not to be merciful?” asked Pope Francis. “No. The
Christian must necessarily be merciful, because this is at the centre
of the Gospel. And so the Church behaves like Jesus. She does not
give theoretical lessons on love or on mercy. She does not spread
throughout the world a philosophy or a path to wisdom. Certainly,
Christianity is all of this too”, the Pope remarked, “but as a
consequence, a reflection. The mother Church, like Jesus, teaches by
example, and words serve to cast light on the meaning of her
gestures”.

Therefore, “the Mother Church teaches
us to give food and drink to those who hunger and thirst, and to
clothe those who are naked. And how does she do this? She does it
through the example of many saints who have done it in an exemplary
fashion, but she also does it through the example of many fathers and
mothers, who teach their children that what we have left over is for
those who are in need of basic necessities. In the most humble
Christian families, the rule of hospitality is always sacred: there
is always a dish of food and a place to sleep for those in need”.
And to those who say they have nothing to spare, Francis gave the
example of a family in his former diocese who shared half of what
they had to eat with a poor man who knocked at their door. “Learning
to share what we have is important”.

The mother Church teaches us to be
close to those who are sick. Like the saints who have served Jesus in
this way, there are many people who practise this work of mercy every
day in hospitals, rest homes, or in their own homes, providing
assistance for the sick.

The mother Church also teaches us to be
close to those who are imprisoned. “'But Father', some will say,
'This is dangerous. These are bad people'. Listen carefully: any one
of us is capable of doing what these men and women in prison have
done. We all sin and make mistakes in life. They are not worse than
you or me. Mercy overcomes any wall or barrier, and leads us always
to seek the face of the human being. And it is mercy that changes
hearts and lives, that is able to regenerate a person or enable him
to be newly reintegrated in society”.

“The mother Church teaches us to be
close to those who have been abandoned and who die lonely. This is
what Mother Teresa did in the streets of Calcutta and it is what many
Christians, those who are not afraid to take the hand of those who
are about to leave this world, have done and continue to do. And here
too, mercy offers peace to those who depart and to those who remain,
making us aware that God is greater than death, and that by staying
with Him, even the final separation is only 'until we meet again'”.

“The Church is a mother”, he
continued, “teaching her children the works of mercy. She has
learned this path from Jesus; she has learned that this is essential
for salvation. It is not enough to love those who love us. It is not
enough to do good to those who do good to us in return. To change the
world for the better is it necessary to do good to those who are not
able to do the same for us, as our Father did for us, in giving us
Jesus. How much have we paid for our redemption? Nothing. It was all
free. Doing good without expecting anything in return – this is
what our Father did for us and what we too must do”. For this
reason, he concluded, “let us give thanks to the Lord, who has
given us the grace of having the Church as a mother who teaches us
the way of mercy, the way of life”.